Archive of Our Own

Atlantis sizzled in the direct summer sun, wallowing in the languid ocean heat of the Tropic of Cancer. Her stripped-to-the-bone contingent of Marines and scientists and die-hard original mission members had quickly learned they now needed shoes when they went out onto her long, angled piers -- real shoes. Shower sandals and Crocs melted. No tanning reflectors were necessary either -- the city's shiny surfaces made its gardens and avenues a sun worshipper's dream now.

Tucked into a little-trafficked patch of ocean off the Baja Peninsula, officially attached to the command of the Carl Vinson out of San Diego (over O'Neill's objections that if the Navy were brought in, the Army would soon be demanding its share of the high-status offworld mission pie), Atlantis and her people dreamed uneasily in the long, hot, cloudless days.

^^^

Zelenka knew it was risky, but he approached Rodney anyway as Rodney muttered to himself, comparing diagnostic screens and database feeds, switching his gaze back and forth between his laptop and the main displays in the city's gateroom command center.

Zelenka rapped on the counter to get Rodney's attention. "I think we should postpone these calibrations."

"What? No. Why? Sheppard's already in the chair; we're greenlit through San Diego; Woolsey wants it; I've done all the preliminary calculations; no. Why?" Rodney didn't look at him as he rapid-fired his objections, his hands flying over two keyboards.

"Because, we're getting anomalies in some unusual places. Automatic reboots, even things -- minor systems -- going offline for no reason we can determine. I just... I think we are risking some kind of general system overload if you proceed at this time."

"That's insane. You don't have... Do you have any hard numbers? Or is this just one of your European hunches? Not that I haven't learned to respect them. Or are you just cranky because you have to work on Saturday? But. We have full power from the Zed-PM, the shield is fully powered down so there's no overload potential there. Is this about that weird alert we got after the whales? Are you still on about that?"

"No. Well, yes. But no."

"You ready, Rodney?" Sheppard's voice sounded distant and a bit tinny over the speakers. Was Zelenka imagining that he also sounded just a bit reluctant?

"Almost... Yes. Go."

SGC, coordinating with NORAD and Washington and some strange retrofitted stuff from Houston and Cape Canaveral -- Sheppard had sworn up and down it was nothing but a sop to NASA, some kind of pork barrel, political thing that had nothing to do with the mission and everything to do with Washington's guilt over canceling the shuttle program -- had ordered a very minor deployment of a drone or two. The idea was, they were all wanting to check their tracking systems, wanting to make sure the various space tracking installations were interfacing accurately with Atlantis, mired as she was in post-battle politics while floating in her tropical sea.

Zelenka privately thought the request from higher-up also had something to do with survivor's denial about the loss of the Earth chair. Since Washington had lost their own weapon to the Wraith, they were going to pointlessly play with the one he and the other Atlantis personnel had brought to Earth, at such great risk, in her hour of need.

"I'm uneasy, yes, Rodney, you can accuse me of emotionalism all you like, but I'm still following out the implications of the auto-lockdown the city imposed on us because of the whales last week, true; and you know Parrish has been concerned about the algae situation on the east side, because of the currents, and I have to agree with him that the numbers we are getting today from the desalinization systems are really quite strange."

"Within normal parameters." Rodney's tone was arrogant, and even more dismissive than usual. "You have a go, Colonel."

"Rodney."

"In a... second..."

"Didn't Colonel Sheppard express reservations about the tests as well?"

"Yes, but they were all... political.... Oh. Shit."

The other three technicians in the control room straightened and looked at Rodney, just as the power in the room, and presumably all over the city, flickered.

Zelenka, looking over Rodney's shoulder at the laptop, then turning to the bigger screens, didn't have to tune in to Rodney's muttering to verify that something was going terribly wrong.

"Sheppard?" Rodney was saying. "Sheppard? John? Answer me!"

^^^

It was the alarm clock. Whack it and it falls to the floor. Done. No.... It wasn't the clock, which was indeed now on the floor, with the sound still ... going. It wasn't the clock. It was the cell phone.

Daniel sat up and leaned way over to the far nightstand (he still slept on "his side" of the bed. After all these years. Even when he was alone.) and scrabbled for the phone. It was the Mountain. At what, to them, was probably not an ungodly hour on a Saturday morning.

"Jackson." He leaned over the other way, snagged the alarm clock and killed its persistent chirps.

"Sorry to bother you, Dr. Jackson, but something's come up. Can you please stand by for beaming transport?"

Something urgent, then, if they were using a ship. And likely urgent not at the Mountain. The team wasn't being called out, then. Although Cameron was probably already up and at 'em; probably had already run his ten miles, on a bright morning like this. So not an SG-1 something. Which left things wide open. Walter could make Armageddon sound reluctantly necessary; as if it were nothing more than a regrettable faux pas. Daniel fumbled for his glasses one-handed.

"I'm going to need ten minutes -- I'm still in bed. And can you tell me where I'm headed?"

"It's Earthside, Dr. Jackson. Atlantis."

"Ten minutes." He pulled the phone away from his ear and checked the seconds, ticking away as they always did. "Mark."

Throwing on some clothes and grabbing his go-bag and his laptop left him two minutes to spare. Standing in his living room, glancing at his watch, he had time to think that at least Atlantis would have spare toothbrushes, plenty of food, and the emergency hadn't involved something happening to Jack.

^^^

The infirmary on Atlantis was eerily dark. Outside light came in from tall windows in the lab on the far side of the main patient ward. Daniel's eyes were still adjusting from the outdoors. The beam from Daedalus had materialized him on a wide, hard-surfaced area between the landing pad for the cruisers and the exterior entrance to this wing.

It was Major Lorne who'd come out to meet him. Daniel was grateful for that. He could work with Woolsey, when he had to, but the memories of that man insisting he be killed or put into stasis, as well as Daniel's less-than-friendly response, had not faded. Possibly for Woolsey too. Even though Daniel could see why Woolsey had reached that conclusion at the time, he was grateful to avoid him now. Lorne had escorted him in, and it was immediately apparent that something was very wrong.

"I gather this incident, besides bringing me here, has somehow knocked out your power?" Daniel said, glancing around. Someone, or many someones, had apparently scavenged a mismatched collection of emergency lighting for the infirmary.

"Yes. And we have only one casualty so far, but one with a strange collection of symptoms. Which is why we called you."

Lorne had brought Daniel to an all-too-familiar bed in a quiet niche of the infirmary. In the bed lay John Sheppard, looking annoyed. That was familiar too. The lack of beeps and glowing green readouts all around, however, was not.

"Colonel Sheppard," Daniel said.

John just frowned at him.

Lorne began, "This morning we were doing a fairly routine test of some of the city's systems, including the weapons chair, when something went wrong. The power was knocked out, Colonel Sheppard was knocked unconscious, and we can't seem to get much of anything back on line."

Jennifer Keller had come up behind them while Lorne was explaining.

"Thanks for coming, Daniel," she said.

"Happy to help," he said, shaking her hand, "but honestly I'm still wondering why I'm here. If you're worried about the city's operations, I'm certainly no expert."

"You are here because of me," Sheppard said, sounding grudging.

"Beg pardon?" Daniel said. "That sounded like..."

"Since John regained consciousness about two hours ago," Jennifer interjected, "he's been speaking what we assume is a form of Ancient. Not one any of our staff is familiar with."

"Um," Daniel said, adjusting his glasses and mentally shifting gears. "What happened?"

"As they said. I was in the weapons chair. We began running routine tests. I was about to fire a drone and it all went... black."

Jennifer said, "You can understand him?"

"Perfectly," Daniel said. "It's an older variant of Ancient, one unique to the Pegasus galaxy, as far as I can determine, and of course there's the question of accents, both his own and something that's probably the effects of artificial and temporal drift--"

"Can you ask him how he's feeling?"

"I feel all right. Just, you know, it's all coming out Alterran."

"You can still understand English?"

"Sure, yes. I'm just... You know, I don't know what language I'm thinking in. It's just coming out gibberish to them."

"Not gibberish. Ancient. Dr. Keller would like to know how you feel."

"Um. Cranky. Dehydrated. Headache. Ready to get the hell out of here."

Of course, Daniel thought, the Ancients had a pointedly precise word for hell.

^^^

Daniel learned that John had not put his head into a download device or anything of the sort. He had been sitting in the command chair just as he'd done a dozen times before, both here and way back when, in the other chair in Antarctica. He'd been ready to launch a couple of drone missiles at pre-arranged artificial floating targets, placed about a half-mile away from the city, when everything had gone haywire.

Despite his assurances that he felt pretty much fine, Dr. Keller believed that his abnormal brain scans and some alarming numbers related to his liver function meant that he needed to stay in the infirmary for at least a couple of days.

Daniel reluctantly reported to Woolsey, accompanied by a stoic but silently supportive Lorne, and a voluble and obviously very upset Rodney.

Woolsey grimly asked, "Can anyone explain to me why the entire city has been effectively offline since Colonel Sheppard attempted to launch the drones? And why all your efforts at getting it back online have been fruitless?"

Radek and Rodney sputtered, finished each others' sentences, and finally traded rueful glances.

"More tests."

"We--"

"--don't know.."

"Inconclusive."

They all escaped. It was painful.

^^^

Daniel sat beside John's bed. They both ate their MRE's. Daniel had traded John his macaroni-and-cheese sidedish for John's brownie. They were happy. With the food, at least. And yet Daniel could offer no insight into why John was stuck speaking an obscure form of Ancient, or why the city was half-dead, or when those conditions might wear off. Jack's experience with the repositories wasn't really analogous, and Daniel was, frankly, stumped. Clearly the condition had to do with John sitting in the chair, being hooked into the city's systems through the gel-like substance in the armrests, but....

It was dark. There were candles.

"What do you think happened? What's going on?" Daniel said.

"Seriously, are you speaking English now? Or Alterran?"

"Alterran. It's good for me to keep my hand in. And your accent is just fascinating, by the way."

John shook his head and tossed his plastic fork on the tray. He looked at one of the big white candles near the foot of his bed. Nurses laughed and talked quietly in the next room. He was the only patient, but there was an ongoing genetic culture experiment whose jury-rigged power supply needed babysitting. Daniel could pick out Jennifer's and Rodney's voices, which made him wonder. It was just a genetics project. Why were they both still on duty? Still hovering?

"I don't know. There's... Something is wrong. The city is... wrong. I get... You're going to think I'm crazy."

"John. You're kidding me now. Crazy is what we do, don't you remember?"

"Right. Yes. Well.... You know, when you spend a lot of time in the chair, or flying the jumpers, you get... synched. Attuned. To what the city likes. What she thinks of as baseline, as normal. And there's something.... not that. At first I thought it was just me, just me and the rest of us who weren't ready to be back here, back on Earth. Feeling a sense that things were wrong. After all the time we'd.... Well. Pegasus. It was. It seemed like...."

"Home."

John exhaled, as if relieved Daniel understood the fundamental point. "Ever since they moved us down here from San Francisco Bay, the city has felt wrong. I thought for a while that it was just me, just my resistance at being Earthside after so long, but after today I think it's a lot more than that. A lot more. There's really something major malfunctioning. With the city itself."

"If I get Rodney or Radek in here, can I translate for you? While you try to explain it to them? Because their diagnostic tests are getting them nowhere. It's obvious there's been a massive systems failure, sure; they have been working all day on trying to pin it down, but they can't."

"If you think it would help."

^^^

In the morning, overruling Woolsey's concerns, Rodney's dark looks, and Keller's medical judgment, John went back to the chair. It was the only way, he insisted, through Daniel's translating, that he could figure out what the city was trying to tell them.

That was another mistake.

^^^

Daniel sat in Woolsey's office and fidgeted. At least Woolsey had included him and Zelenka in the conference call. At least Washington was on speaker phone where they could all hear. Daniel didn't know why Woolsey had decided to be that democratic, but he was grateful.

Rodney wasn't with them. He was working in the control-chair room, as he'd been for the last four hours, the panel at the base of the chair standing open, crystals and wires and leads pinned everywhere, running more so-far negative diagnostics on the hardware.

Jennifer was in the lab, running every test she could think of on John's blood samples, monitoring his vitals as best she could with the skeleton emergency power they'd cobbled together, John's health being their priority at this point. Jennifer described his state as not quite a coma. She had struggled for words, when Woolsey had come down for a report, and Rodney had put his hand on her shoulder. Then he'd hightailed it back to the chair room.

Carson was working too, silent and worried, taking Jennifer's direction, tireless and competent. Daniel had listened while Woolsey had calmly fended off a bunch of offers for help that were thinly veiled challenges to his authority, and grudgingly admired how he had requisitioned supplies to keep the personnel at work in the city, despite the lack of power.

And now Daniel and Radek and Woolsey were talking to Washington.

The speaker made Jack's voice sound tinny. Maybe it was because of the inadequate emergency battery powering the phone system.

"You need another strong gene-carrier, is what it sounds like. Someone who can talk to the city as well as Sheppard can, someone who can translate."

Daniel leaned forward, speaking fast enough to cut off Woolsey, who had drawn a breath to speak. "Bad idea, Jack."

"Yeah? You've got a priceless asset out there, which is also an archaeological marvel, dead in the water. Your scientists getting anywhere?"

"Not so far," Woolsey said, looking as if he'd eaten a lemon.

"Well?"

There was a pause, as they all digested Jack's tart summary.

"Jack," Daniel interposed, and Zelenka looked at him sideways, probably shocked at Daniel's informality with the general. "You do realize that Sheppard's in a coma now? After getting back in the chair after the first time?"

"Technically," Woolsey began, "Dr. Keller informs me he's not in a coma; he is simply--"

"He's. Not. Conscious." Daniel laid heavy emphasis on the words.

"And he hasn't been head-sucked twice, either, now, has he?" Jack said. "Sounds like somebody's going to have to come out there and straighten you guys out."

"If this is about you not getting a vacation last year--"

"Daniel."

Woolsey hastily said, "We really are not in a position to risk your health or well-being, General."

"Ha," Jack said. "One word. Replicators? No; three words. Dead man switch?"

Daniel muttered, "Underwater deadman switch. Those three words."

"If Colonel Carter were here, she'd probably knock all your heads. Under the circumstances, I'll come on out and do what I can."

Woolsey sat there, looking chagrined. O'Neill had broken the connection without getting anyone's agreement for what sounded to them all like a very risky plan.

^^^

When Jack materialized on the landing pad in the long, purple, tropical twilight, Daniel was there to meet him. Jack was dressed in his preferred green BDUs and had a duffel over his shoulder, which he promptly dropped upon catching sight of Daniel. He closed the dozen feet between them and wrapped Daniel in a tight, affectionate hug.

Daniel melted a little in the face of Jack's familiar onslaught of affection. He hugged back, while inquiring warily, "Is this okay?"

"No need for panic," Jack said easily, squeezing him tighter before releasing him, patting him on the shoulder, and turning back to pick up the duffel. "They all know we're old friends."

"I worry," Daniel said, hands in his pockets, falling into step beside Jack as they approached the infirmary doors.

"I know," Jack said, sounding fond.

"I don't like this," Daniel said.

"I know," Jack said in a totally different tone. "But seriously. Follow my lead."

Daniel had time to shoot him a questioning, sidelong look, before they were through the doors and Woolsey was shaking Jack's hand.

"Thank you for coming, General. I think."

"Richard, you know I just can't stay away from your fair city. The views, the food, the people."

Woolsey's turn to look sidelong, as Lorne stepped up to divest Jack of his duffel. Lorne saluted, received Jack's acknowledgement, and said, "We've put you next door to Dr. Jackson, sir. He can show you the way whenever events allow." Then he turned away to go deliver Jack's duffel to his temporary quarters.

Woolsey was saying, "I imagine you'll want to check on Colonel Sheppard?"

Jack said, "Lead on," without adding 'Macduff,' and Daniel brought up the rear thinking confused thoughts of tragedy, hubris and fate.

There was no change at all in Sheppard's condition. Jennifer kept insisting he wasn't in a coma. Technically. Jack frowned and listened. He didn't ask many questions, and those that he did ask were answered by Radek, because they involved details about the strange readings Radek and Parrish had been concerned about before the day of the abortive drone test.

Jack and Daniel retreated to Woolsey's office, where Radek and Carson joined them. After rehashing all the events of the previous two days, Jack pinned Woolsey with a drill-sergeant gaze and said, "I think you'd better call down there and have McKay button up the chair. Tell him I'm on my way."

Woolsey pursed his lips. "General, I must again repeat my conviction that this is an unnecessarily dangerous plan."

Jack waved a hand at him. "Yeah, yeah, noted for the record." He was already getting to his feet.

Woolsey put up a hand, trying to make him wait. Jack paused. Woolsey said, "We could ask Dr. Beckett if he would be willing--"

"Richard. I'm not going to ask someone else to take this kind of risk. That said, I'm not interested in any suicide missions. I think I can do this. Besides, Beckett hates the chair."

"He brought us here from Pegasus successfully, under severe pressures," Woolsey said defensively.

"I know, and he did a hell of a job, and Zelenka's wormhole drive was a Godsend too, but we gotta cut to the chase. Beckett sits in the chair tonight, he goes haywire like Sheppard, and then we're down to me, just the same. No. So, come on."

Woolsey sighed, and the sigh seemed to collect friends and fill the room.

In the winding, darkened hallway down, Daniel was able to hang back and then nudge Jack to do the same. Radek glanced back at them over his shoulder, and when Carson noticed and would have stopped, Radek put a hand on Carson's arm and kept him walking. Daniel noticed Carson was carrying a heavy medical kit.

Daniel turned to Jack, and his whisper was rushed and worried. "I can't figure out why you're so intent on doing this when you've seen what happened to Sheppard. I know we do risky things all the time, but..."

Jack glanced up the hall at the receding backs of the three other men. He put a hand on Daniel's arm. "It's a dice roll, sure. But, one, I think I can find out important stuff by sitting in the chair, and I'm going to be as careful as I can. And two, like I said when I first got here -- I really need you to follow my lead. There's some stuff going on in DC that I haven't had time to tell you about." He squeezed Daniel's elbow, and, before he glanced up the hallway, Daniel could see in his eyes the kiss he felt he shouldn't deliver.

Jack stepped away, and Daniel folded his arms, looked at his feet, looked at the ceiling, and heaved a huge sigh before following in his wake.

In the chair room, Rodney was still working. He was holding a tablet, with one forlorn-looking lead clipped to it and to the chair, but all the panels were closed up again. There were two battery powered lanterns on the floor of the room, shedding a meager, watery, white light. Rodney was tutting to himself. When he saw Woolsey and the others, he disconnected his last wire and stepped back. Daniel could see all the things he wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut. Jack looked around at everyone, tugged at the hem of his shirt, and then took off his watch and handed it to Daniel. Without further ado, he stepped toward the chair.

Rodney said softly, "Good luck." Daniel thought Jack either didn't hear him, or intentionally ignored him, his attention already elsewhere.

Jack sat still and upright in the dark chair for a moment, his hands in his lap, his eyes closed. Then he shifted his weight back, and immediately the chair leaned him the rest of the way, the seat and its pedestal lighting up, eerily bright in the dim room.

Rodney exclaimed something, hastily bitten off, and broke out his tablet again. Radek folded his arms and sidled toward Rodney, his eyes fixed on Jack. Carson emitted what had to be a whimper and set his case at his side on the floor.

Without meaning to, Daniel found he had taken a step toward Jack.

Leaving his left hand in his lap, Jack put his right hand in the chair's gel-like control arm. Everyone else was still. The lights in the chair shifted, some blinking off, some running in erratic kaleidoscope patterns.

Radek, who was standing close beside Rodney, whispered urgently, "Why have the lights all gone to green? They should be bluer. And brighter, as well." Rodney whispered with him rapidly, something about frequencies and oscillations, quickly escalating into physics jargon that was completely over Daniel's head.

A schematic popped into being over Jack's head -- three-dimensional, but in hues of algae-like green, yellow and red, the colors moving and wavering in a way that Daniel found faintly nauseating to watch. Rodney swore and raised his tablet, flipping it around, presumably to record whatever Jack had caused the chair to produce.

Daniel took a step closer. Jack's forehead had started to sweat. His eyes were squeezed closed. Daniel was flooded with uncomfortable memories of the lost Antarctic chair, and the battle Jack had won for them six years previously.

Half the lights in the chair suddenly went out, the half on Jack's left, and the schematic blinked out too. Jack grunted, but before Daniel could touch him, Jack leaned his head forward and the chair back followed him up. Just a few lights now, blinking forlornly, cycling in incomplete ellipses.

Jack groaned, and leaned forward as if to stand, but his hand was apparently still gripped in the gel compartment of the armrest, and he lost his balance. His face had taken on a ghoulish hue of green. Daniel reached for him, but Carson was faster. He stepped up the pedestal stair, directly across from Daniel, and shoved Jack with his foot. Jack's hand pulled loose from the gel with a bubbling, crackling sound, like tearing cellophane, and he staggered down into Daniel's arms. Daniel braced himself against the sudden weight, and Jack clutched at him and got his balance, eyes open, shaking his head, still conscious.

Daniel was aware of an odd ebbing wave coursing through his own body, which might have been adrenaline and anxiety, but felt almost like an electric shock, similar to touching an ungrounded appliance.

More weird and uncomfortable flashbacks, this time to the deadly mission he'd been on with Rodney, kidnapped by the renegade Asgard.

"That was fun," Jack said, his words slurred. He was still leaning heavily against Daniel.

"Oh crap," Daniel said, tightening his hold. Several things happened at once.

"That was Ancient, wasn't it," Woolsey said, as Carson said, "I'll just go and get a gurney," and Rodney and Radek's muttering grew in volume, both of them staring at the tablet. Then Rodney shoved the tablet into Radek's eager hands and scrambled for his toolbox. He knelt, and popped the panel of the chair again, as Daniel eased Jack back, to sit down on the bench that circled the wall of the small room. Jack was sweating and his hands were damp.

"Take it easy, love," Daniel said. "How do you feel?"

"Nauseated. Dizzy. Might make a mess, actually... hang on..."

Jack shifted to put his head down nearly to his knees, pulling his hands in to rest palm-to-palm between his thighs. Daniel leaned close to wrap one arm around him and rest one hand on the back of his neck, still very much alarmed. He was aware of Woolsey hovering near.

Carson came back with the gurney and they helped Jack onto it. Daniel grimly held his hand while they wheeled him to the infirmary, past caring who noticed or what they thought. Jack's hand was clammy and a bit cold.

Daniel wished he understood what was happening. As far as Jennifer could tell with her limited diagnostic equipment, Colonel Sheppard was not experiencing the kind of neural over-writing that the two Ancient repositories had inflicted on Jack previously. Daniel wondered if this was more like what he'd experienced with the download from Merlin, except perhaps not as intentional or controlled. The second time Jack had taken the download from a repository, he'd received some pretty amazing powers, too. How that factored in to his ability to withstand whatever the city had thrown at Sheppard, Daniel wished he knew.

No way to tell yet how Jack would respond. Damn Jack for putting himself in harm's way, again. And yes, that was hypocritical, and Daniel knew it, and went right ahead and thought it anyway. Damn it all.

The nurses had pulled Jack's boots off and covered him with a light blanket. Jennifer checked his vitals and said they looked good, though his pulse was a bit fast.

"General O'Neill, I'd like to draw some blood," she said.

Jack waved his hand vaguely at her.

"Is that 'yes'?"

"Sure," Jack said, and Jennifer's anguished eyes met Daniel's as Daniel nodded.

"He means 'yes.' "

"Well," Jennifer said, as the technician stepped up to strap Jack's arm and find a vein, "at least he's conscious."

"Small mercies," Jack murmured, making Daniel smile in spite of himself.

"I felt something," Daniel said to the room, as Jennifer and Carson continued to gather what data they could, given their limited emergency power, and the technician strode off to run tests on the blood sample. "When Jack stood up and leaned on me. Like a mild electric shock."

Carson frowned at him, nodding. "When I saw that his hand was stuck, I worried. The neurochemical interface involves a substantial amount of electricity, although a fairly low amperage. That's why I thought I should try to push him free before you could touch him with your bare hands."

"Like you're supposed to do if someone's hung up in an electrical panel."

"Aye," Carson said. "A wooden bat would have been better, but these boots have thick soles, and so..." He shrugged.

"That was good thinking," Jack said. Daniel had had to move away while Jennifer started an IV, but he stepped back in and took Jack's hand again. It seemed warmer. Jack was rubbing his forehead with his free hand.

"You're speaking Alterran, you know."

"Really? Again?"

"Are you feeling any better?"

"Not so much. Still dizzy, still pretty nauseated."

Daniel began to pass that information on to the doctors, but before he got out a full sentence, Jack's hand started to shake in his. Jack was shivering uncontrollably. He blurted, "Daniel," and then convulsed, vomiting.

Daniel, sick at heart, stepped back and let go of Jack's hand, making room for medical staff to close in around the gurney. This was not good.

When they were able to lay Jack on his back again, propped up on a wedge, and begin to restrain his legs, he was limp and unresponsive. Way too much like Sheppard's condition. His eyes were closed. His face was slack.

No. Not good at all.

^^^

Daniel started awake at the hand on his arm. He'd been dozing on a not-quite-long-enough sofa that someone had brought in for him and placed by Jack's bed. They'd transferred Jack to a bed from the gurney, eventually.

"Daniel," a quiet voice repeated. It was Radek. "I hate to wake you, but I knew you would want to know as soon as we did."

Radek stepped back as Daniel sat up and rubbed his eyes. He found his glasses on the arm of the sofa and put them on. He nodded at Radek and stood up. Jack looked just the same, asleep on his back, no change. Daniel raised his gaze to where Sheppard lay in the next bed over. No change there either.

"Thank you. Yes," he said, and Radek indicated the door. A glance at his watch told him he'd only been asleep for about an hour. "You've analyzed the video Rodney captured of the chair's display."

"Yes. And, well, I'll let you hear it all in order."

They were going to the big conference room, the one where the staff held their meetings. Daniel rubbed his eyes. He felt rumpled and out of sorts, but at least he had had the benefit of a quick shower before coming back to the infirmary to wait beside Jack. It had made his heart crack to see that Jack's duffel had been deposited neatly at the foot of the bed in the room next to his own. And, that the connecting door between the suites was open. He wished, with all his heart, that he could see Jack in that room, unpacking, joking, the mission a success. He pushed the desire aside. Long way to go before he and the Atlantis staff could get anywhere close to that. In the conference room, more makeshift lanterns had been placed on the table and near the doors. It gave the place a Halloween look. Despite the late hour, Woolsey and his senior staff were all present.

Woolsey caught sight of Daniel and Radek and nodded, and then said, "Dr. McKay, please go ahead." The biologist, Dr. Parrish, was sitting next to Rodney, looking worried and sleepy.

Rodney had a slide on the big screen behind him, a still from the display that Jack had generated.

"We were able to analyze quite a bit of the data that General O'Neill coaxed the chair into projecting. It's, in essence, status reports on some critical systems." Rodney's remote clicked through a series of the stills. "Various measures of ocean water quality, and monitoring stations on the city's own water and sewer treatment plants, electrical systems, some tied into the Zed-PM interface, some tied into the solar panels. The city's apparently been compensating for some time for what it sees as inadequacies and even toxicities in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the city's internal systems rely on bioluminescence, chemiluminescence and related reactions and catalysts. Now, I'm no biologist, clearly, but we've been putting our heads together with Dr. Parrish, here, and it seems, to dumb it down somewhat, that Atlantis is being poisoned. By the ocean we're in."

Woolsey said, "How is this possible? Didn't the city originate here? How can it be so ill-adapted to Earth's biosphere?"

Rodney started to speak, but Daniel was quicker. It was kind of a reflex by now, he distantly thought. He spoke almost on auto-pilot, as he caught sight of a coffee carafe and got up and helped himself.

"The city left here for the Pegasus Galaxy, yes, at least 5 million years ago--"

"Give or take," Radek put in, as if to himself.

"--but," Daniel continued, sipping coffee, feeling himself revive a bit with the very first sip, "we don't have any records to show whether the city was built here or traveled here from somewhere else. I lean toward the 'somewhere else' theory myself. The city left for the Pegasus Galaxy from mainland Antarctica, which as far as we can tell was frozen at the time. In short, we don't know if it ever floated in oceans while it was here millennia ago. And of course the composition of the oceans has conceivably changed a lot since then, I imagine?"

Parrish looked as if he wanted to answer, but Woolsey persisted. "But the city is so sophisticated. Surely you're not telling me that it can't compensate for whatever it's finding in Earth's oceans now?"

Rodney exchanged glances with Dr. Parrish.

Parrish spoke up, "It doesn't look like it, I'm afraid."

Woolsey clenched his fists on the smooth tabletop. "So you're saying that there's no, no, antidote, for whatever's poisoning the city?"

Rodney was looking at his feet. "We haven't found anything yet. And with the city almost entirely offline...." He waved a hand in frustration.

Woolsey said, "You're saying there's been no progress on reviving the city's systems. Except General O'Neill was able to briefly bring the command chair back to functioning, at great cost to himself. Any theories on that? Dr. Beckett?"

"General O'Neill does have the strongest manifestation of the Ancient gene that we've seen to date."

"And," Daniel put in, reluctantly, "we have no way to be sure what the continuing effect was of his previous encounters with Ancient download devices. There may have been lingering changes that we simply can't discover. Changes that allow him to communicate better with the city, right now, than anyone else."

Carson leaned forward and interlaced his fingers. "That said, both General O'Neill and Colonel Sheppard continue to be unresponsive after their run-in's with the chair. Technically--"

"Technically they are not in a coma, yes, but?" Woolsey's impatience was showing.

"Their condition appears to be stable and not deteriorating. That is the best I can say."

Daniel realized he had gotten out of his chair, abandoning his coffee cup, when Woolsey had said Jack's name. He realized he was pacing back and forth along the wall behind his side of the table, and had been for several minutes. Perhaps it was a sign of how inured the Atlantis crew was to people's stress responses that no one seemed to have reacted.

"Clearly the current state of affairs is unacceptable," Woolsey was saying. "Have you considered, under the circumstances, airlifting the two of them to the Navy base in San Diego? With our clearly inadequate emergency power..."

Daniel stood still. He stopped listening. He'd been thinking, in kind of a tape loop, about how Jack had always done this, always let himself be the guinea pig for the Ancient downloads, always put himself in harm's way when it came to the Ancient repositories. As much as Jack had bitched about Daniel's run-in with Merlin and his turn as a Prior of the Ori, Jack was two and one over Daniel when it came to those kinds of disasters. Daniel's condition as a Prior had worn off, over time. It had a built-in deadline, and that had given him a certain urgency. He'd been entirely willing to commit several treasonous acts in order to complete his mission, which had been, in a way, his legacy from both Merlin and Morgan: Destroying the Ori threat to humanity. On the other hand, Jack's condition, both times, had no built-in deadline. Before the Ancient downloads got a chance to kill him, he had been healed by...

"The Asgard," Daniel said, turning to face the surprised and upturned faces of the people around the table.

"Beg pardon?" Woolsey said, sounding rattled, at the same time that Rodney blurted, "What?"

"The Asgard," Daniel repeated.

Woolsey exchanged a troubled glance with Rodney, and said gently, "Dr. Jackson, the Asgard are gone."

"I know, I know. But it was their technology that reversed the effects of the Ancient downloads on Jack, the two times that we encountered their repositories of knowledge. Surely this has to be similar -- some kind of, of overload experience because of the malfunctioning city?"

Woolsey said, "I'll grant you that it makes sense to consider the possible parallels between the two situations, though they are, in fact, quite different. But I am not seeing the relevance of the Asgard, given that--"

"The Odyssey!" Daniel said, impatiently pacing again. "The Odyssey has the library of all the Asgard's knowledge. All their technology. Records of everything. We can find the method they used to reverse whatever's happened to Jack and John by accessing the Asgard database on the Odyssey."

Rodney looked excited, but he said, "Isn't the Odyssey off on some kind of extended secret mission?"

Daniel said, with feigned patience, "Well, maybe they're back!"

Woolsey said, "Isn't there a copy of the Asgard information on Earth, by now?"

And Radek had to explain, "This was tried, but even the largest computers could not handle the data transfer for a full backup. No one has been able to duplicate the compression algorithms that the Asgard installed in the Odyssey's hardware at the time of the final mission to Orilla."

Rodney muttered, "That reminds me..." and began typing furiously on his spare laptop.

"Well?" Daniel said. "Can someone please figure out how to contact Ian, Colonel Davidson, I mean, and see if they're, you know, back?"

^^^

"That's it?" Woolsey said, sounding incredulous.

Daniel met the eyes of Dr. Varland, from the Odyssey's research staff.

"It doesn't look very impressive, does it," she said, gently nudging what appeared to be a pearly, oval-shaped stone, about the size of a walnut, where it lay in the foam pocket of the attache case she'd carried when Odyssey beamed her over. She had an American accent, but her looks, like her name, were quite Nordic. "But, to the best of our knowledge, it's a copy of the device the Asgard used to heal the general on his first trip to the Ida galaxy, back in 1999. There was extensive documentation of its use in the node of the database concerning-- anyway, that's not important. Suffice it to say that when you called and requested a search, we found a lot of details about it and how to use it. The Asgard who carried one usually attached it as a biomedical implant to the palms of their hands. The 'on' switch is actually a dual switch, on both edges. You squeeze its sides simultaneously to activate."

Daniel said, "Did you try it?"

"No. Once we had, pardon the expression, replicated it, the hardware guys ran some diagnostics to confirm its power source is active, and to confirm its range, but we didn't want to turn it on without an actual subject present."

Woolsey said, "You're confident this is the same thing that helped General O'Neill before."

Dr. Varland nodded vigorously, causing her blonde pony tail to bob. "Oh, certainly. There was video of the actual event, in fact. The equivalent of Asgard security feeds. And extensive logs. The general's visit back then made quite a splash with the Asgard data managers. Anyway, yes, we're very confident."

"Well, in that case," Woolsey said, "who should use it?"

Dr. Varland said, "I don't think it's a case of a genetic key, like we see with so much of the Ancient technology, or a naquadah marker, as with the Goa'uld healing device. The Asgard devices rarely work like that. I think it will work for basically anyone."

Daniel raised his eyebrows.

"Shall we?" Woolsey said, and Varland packed up her Asgard stone and followed him down to the infirmary, Daniel trailing behind. Was that hope he was feeling? He was almost afraid to evaluate.

Daniel folded his arms and leaned against the wall right by the door, as Woolsey explained to Jennifer what was going on. Nikki Varland unpacked her Asgard stone and set it gently on a table.

Woolsey said, "How do we decide who to try it on first?"

Varland said, "Well, it would seem to me that it would make the most sense to try it on General O'Neill first. We know he responded to it before, and he has more experience with Asgard interventions of this type. It would be helpful if his physiology turned out to be quite compatible. It might make the process easier."

Woolsey glanced at Daniel, who shrugged his agreement. Mentally, he was clenching fairly tightly to equal parts panic and hope.

Woolsey went on, "Dr. Jackson, if you've no objection, I think Dr. Varland should go ahead. She, after all--"

"Of course," Daniel said, waving his hands. He really, really wanted them to get on with it.

Dr. Varland positively beamed. Daniel knew that look. Remembered it, rather. Had he ever been that young? He adjusted his glasses by habit and leaned against the wall again, arms folded.

Varland took a deep breath and set her shoulders, then picked up the stone. She walked over to stand at Jack's head, opposite the half-lit monitor and most of the wires. Jack was unmoving, looking like he was asleep, except for how Daniel knew he never slept on his back. He was still restrained as well, a fact that pained Daniel in some inarticulate way. Standing right at Jack's head, Varland extended her hand to within a few inches of his temple, and rested the stone in one palm, firmly pinching its sides with her other hand.

Nothing happened for the space of one of Daniel's breaths, and then the stone began to glow white. After a few more seconds, it shot out a pencil-sized beam, which seemed to spread evenly around Jack's head, creating a nimbus. Daniel moved closer, holding his breath.

Jack's eyes fluttered open, and his arms moved, testing the straps.

Varland immediately released the stone, and the beam cut off. The stone glowed for a few seconds before returning to its original dull white.

"Hey," Jack said. "Woolsey. Daniel." He struggled, seeming surprised to find himself bound.

"It's okay, you're all right," Daniel said, moving to release the restraints.

Jack blurted, "God, the city-- We have to--" As soon as he could, he sat up, then grabbed for the bedrail.

Daniel moved to Jack's shoulder, putting a hand on his back. Jack scrubbed at his own face. Daniel said, "Take it easy. You've been unconscious for over a day."

Jack looked up, catching sight of a beaming Dr. Varland.

"Have we met?"

"Nikki Varland, General. From the Odyssey. And, with your permission, Mr. Woolsey, I believe we have another case?"

"Of course. Right this way, Doctor," Woolsey said.

"You're speaking English," Daniel said, gripping Jack's hand.

"Oh, good," Jack said, hitching himself up to sitting with his legs over the side of the bed. "Look, there's no time. I've got to get back to the chair room -- get us out of here."

"What?"

Jack tried to stand up, stumbled even with Daniel's grip on his arm, and caught his balance on the foot of the bed. He sat down again, heavily. "Daniel, listen to me. We. Have. To. Get. The. City. Out. Of. Here. Am I making this too complicated? Using words of too many syllables?"

Daniel raised his eyebrows, but before he could say anything, he heard Sheppard.

"General? You're here too? Did you get the same thing I did?"

Jack met Daniel's eyes, with that look that meant, "See? See?" But though he was obviously wide awake, he looked tired. No, weary. And very, very troubled. Daniel remembered the dark circles under his eyes right before he went through the gate to Orilla, all those years ago.

"Yeah," Jack called.

Sheppard said, "Sir, we've got to do something fast. The city's in big trouble."

"Yeah," Jack said, sounding vindicated, squeezing Daniel's hand and waving toward Sheppard with the other. "That."

Woolsey had moved to a spot between the feet of Jack's and John's beds. Jennifer was apparently trying to keep Sheppard from getting up and rushing off to the chair room.

Woolsey said, "Dr. McKay and Dr. Zelenka were able to glean quite a bit from the information that General O'Neill pulled out of the chair right before he collapsed."

"I didn't collapse," Jack protested.

"You kinda did," Daniel insisted, still holding his hand.

Sheppard was saying, "So you all know the city's in trouble. It can't handle the state of the ocean here. It's bad."

"So we understand," Woolsey was saying. There was a sudden clatter of footsteps, and Rodney and Radek appeared in the doorway.

"God, you're awake!" Rodney said, heading for John's bedside.

Jennifer said, "Before the meeting about what to do next gets rolling, I need a few minutes to examine both John and the general and evaluate their condition. Everything else can wait for a few minutes while we do that. Please?"

"But--" Sheppard said, looking pained. He looked even worse than Jack, if that were possible. He had more beard than Daniel had ever seen on him, and his hair was even more tousled than usual.

Woolsey said, "We know, Colonel. There's an emergency with the city. But let Dr. Keller see to your personal emergency first." He collected all the onlookers with his eyes, and Daniel reluctantly released Jack's hand. He'd have to wait with Woolsey and the non-medical people while Jennifer ran her tests.

Jack was awake. John too. That was progress.

No. That was fucking miraculous.

He followed Woolsey up the hallway, ignoring how hard it was to leave Jack's side, and was suddenly incredibly desperate for some coffee.

Jack and John's protests followed them up the hall.

^^^

Daniel was listening with half an ear to Dr. Varland, Radek and Woolsey discuss the Asgard device when one of the infirmary techs appeared in the doorway.

"Mr. Woolsey, Dr. Keller is ready with some results now, and she and Dr. Beckett think you should come to the infirmary right away. Colonel Sheppard and General O'Neill are very anxious to speak with you."

"Of course. Thank you," Woolsey said, and then, in an aside to Daniel, he said, "You never realize how much simpler life is with radios until you don't have them."

He stood up, and continued, "Dr. Varland, we are exceedingly grateful that Colonel Davidson could spare you, and we'll keep you posted about the progress of your, um, patients."

Daniel managed to participate in the goodbyes, but he wasn't paying full attention to anything until he was back in the infirmary and could see that Jack was sitting up, though propped on pillows and the up-raised head of his bed, and had the remains of a meal on a tray beside him. Sheppard was in the much the same state.

"Mr. Woolsey!" Sheppard exclaimed the moment he and Daniel appeared in the doorway. "We have to go back!"

"Go back?" Woolsey said, visibly puzzled.

"Go back to Pegasus," Jack chimed in. He turned to Daniel, who had moved beside his bed to sit down. "You tell him. Tell him we have to go."

Daniel frowned. Jack looked like he'd been on a bender -- much different than when he'd been revived by Thor's systems on the big Asgard warship, the second time he'd been head-sucked. Jack looked more alert than he had when Daniel had left the infirmary, but he was obviously leaning back on the bedding, letting it support him. He still had those dark circles under his eyes.

"Jack. How are you feeling? Didn't the Asgard device counteract whatever happened to you?"

Jack shook his head, impatient. "You're not listening. Sheppard? Can't you convince your boss? Woolsey! Heads up. We have to go back."

Jennifer appeared on the other side of the bed. She put a hand on Jack's arm and he looked up at her, irate, but he subsided at her touch. Daniel could see that, across the room, Rodney was urgently whispering to John.

Jennifer said, "Mr. Woolsey, as you can see, both of them are conscious and no longer speaking Ancient, but they are far from being back to one hundred percent. Their electrolytes are fluctuating; their blood pressure is, too. I don't dare clear them to get up and about, because of that. And I'm still waiting on some of the blood tests. I suspect an elevated white count. They are both insisting they are fine, but when they try to get up, they're dizzy. I imagine they both have headaches they're not admitting to, and possibly their vision is impaired as well. Dr. Varland's Asgard treatment did them both a world of good, but they are not well. Not by any stretch of the imagination."

Shit, Daniel thought.

Woolsey had opened his mouth to ask Jennifer a question, but Jack was faster. "So Sheppard and me are still screwed up. So what. That's not the point. The point is what we both can tell you we got from the city, sitting in that chair. The situation is an emergency. The city is being damaged, maybe fatally damaged. We can't stay here, Richard. We have to take her back to Pegasus." Jack leaned his head back, clearly exhausted from saying even that much.

John muttered from across the room, "What he said."

Woolsey opened his mouth, then closed it. He visibly shook himself, like a dog getting out of a pond. "Is that an order, General?"

"Crap, Woolsey, ask your medical officer if she's relieved me of my command or not. I want it to be an order. Do you care about Atlantis, or not? If you do, you need to get her the hell out of here." Jack closed his eyes.

Woolsey seemed to be thinking out loud. "We could, perhaps, take the city up, establish an orbit...."

"Richard," Jack hissed. He raised his head with an effort and beckoned Woolsey closer. "You've got the wormhole drive. Your city is sick. She won't maintain orbit if you try to park her here. Take her home, goddammit. It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."

"General!" Sheppard sounded frantic. Jack waved at him, holding Woolsey's gaze.

Woolsey stared back, and seemed to firm his spine. He pulled a cell phone from his pocket, and pushed a couple of buttons.

"Colonel Davis? I'm going to need you to relay a message to Admiral Clark. Atlantis will be attempting to launch momentarily. We are experiencing an emergency with the city and need to leave Earth's atmosphere immediately.... Yes, by all means, get Colonel Davidson, too. And do stand by. I'll be in touch as I can. I'm not sure when we can resume communications through the city's channels, but perhaps one of the ships.... Yes.... No, that's all for now.... Thank you, Colonel." He pushed another button on the phone and drew a breath. Then he turned and met Jack's eyes.

"Jack--"

Jennifer, amazingly for her, interrupted him. "Carson will have to do it."

"What?" Carson interjected, turning from where he'd been gazing through a microscope across the room. Daniel figured it was a blood sample from either John or Jack that he was studying.

Jennifer straightened and walked toward Woolsey. "You heard me. Neither the colonel nor General O'Neill is in any shape to try it."

"But--" Carson said.

"Is she right?" Daniel said to Jack.

Jack clenched his jaw and produced a grimace. "Maybe... Look, it's worth a shot. Where's Zelenka...."

"Here, sir."

"You did the calculations for that wormhole drive thingy, right? To bring Atlantis back here?"

"Well, Rodney did most of... Yes, certainly, but--"

"So it wouldn't be much of a thing to retrace your steps?"

Zelenka pushed at his glasses, and rested that hand on the back of his head. He seemed more disheveled than usual. "Well, it would definitely be a much more predictable path in reverse, since we know the param--"

"Great," Jack said, collapsing back on the pillows. "Go for it. The sooner the better."

Woolsey said, "Dr. Beckett?"

And Radek said, "Rodney, have we got enough power in the control--"

Rodney said, "On it." And with a last glance toward John, he took off up the corridor, Radek right behind.

Daniel, frowning, turned his attention back to Jack. Jennifer had gone to Sheppard's bed, and Carson had followed Woolsey out, presumably on his way to the chair room. Jennifer sent a couple of nurses with them, just in case.

Daniel sank back into his chair at Jack's bedside. He put a hand to his forehead.

"Well," Daniel said. "That just happened."

Jack's voice was a cracked whisper. "We have to go, Daniel. Seriously. I can't put into words how fucked up the city is right now. Didn't the geeks decode the displays I got the chair to put up?"

"Yes. I thought you heard... Anyway, yes, they did, and they were pretty alarmed, besides what you said just now. It's okay, Jack. You got the message across."

"General?" John called. He sounded tired. Jennifer was still by his side. "We're really going, right?"

"Sperata," Jack said. I hope so.

Daniel said, "Oh, shit."

^^^

There were no seatbelts to put on, nothing to batten down, from what Jennifer had said. The wormhole drive when engaged didn't feel any different than entering hyperspace, and usually the city's own gravity generators kept down and up in the right directions when they were under way, regardless.

But Daniel, sitting by Jack's bed, couldn't help but think they should be feeling something. The minutes ticked by, and there was no word. Nothing from anyone. And nothing felt different.

He, too, was resenting the lack of the headset radios that were normally standard equipment for Atlantis personnel.

A nurse brought him and Jack a cold drink, and Daniel tried to distract himself by running through verb declensions of all the Ancient variants he'd learned through the years. After drinking thirstily, Jack was quiet, his eyes closed, his head propped on pillows. He looked old. Daniel pushed worry from his mind. Again. There was a job to do. He could worry later.

And then, a commotion in the hallway, and the nursing staff appeared, pushing Carson in. On a gurney.

Daniel heard Sheppard say, "Oh, no..."

Movement beside him. Jack was leaning, tugging at the restraint straps that Jennifer had insisted on, in case of further convulsions.

"Jack--" Daniel started.

Jack threw him an angry glance. "Help me or get out of the way, Daniel. You know what's next."

Daniel stood up and freed Jack from the restraints. While Jack carefully tested his balance by slowly sitting upright, Daniel found Jack's boots and socks and shoved them on his feet, hastily lacing them just enough to get them tied.

Leaning on Daniel's shoulder, Jack managed to stand.

Daniel squeezed his eyes closed. For a moment he was back in a Honduran jungle, sweaty, filthy, terrified, bleeding. Back then, it was him leaning on Jack's shoulder.

Back further in time -- a day in Hell, when Jack had taken a staff blast to the leg, payback for his normal mouthiness with Jaffa guards. Jack had leaned on him, that day.

Yeah. This was business as usual.

They set off at Jack's weak and limping pace. There was a bustle around Sheppard's bed as they passed, but Daniel couldn't spare a glance. The winding hall down to the chair room seemed much longer than Daniel remembered.

Rodney was on his knees at the back panel of the chair, fiddling with some crystals, Woolsey and Radek at his side.

"General O'Neill," Rodney cried.

Daniel said what Jack would have, if he'd had the energy: "He's taking her up, Rodney. Get ready."

"This is crazy, you know," Rodney said, reconnecting whatever he'd disconnected and closing the panel with an emphatic snap.

"No crazier than letting the city slowly die here," Daniel said, with a firmness he did not feel.

Woolsey, for once, didn't object and didn't interfere. He stood back, arms folded, tight-lipped. Perhaps he too understood the inevitable when he saw it.

Daniel was helping Jack into the chair, when behind them, Rodney said, "Oh, god, you too?"

And there was Sheppard, leaning heavily on Jennifer, looking worse than Jack, if that were possible.

"Better stand clear, Daniel," Sheppard said, and he lurched up the step to lean on the chair as it tilted under Jack's touch.

Jack had both hands in the gel controls this time, holding nothing back despite the danger.

"Beckett..." he gasped.

Somehow, Radek read his mind. "Nothing different about the wormhole drive, sir," he said. "I mean, from what Carson--"

John leaned closer. "See where you want to be. Hold the idea. Hold it." His voice was raspy, and it seemed to Daniel that if he didn't have the chair back to lean on, he'd fall. Daniel wished there was something he could do. Jack had used a chair like this to fight Anubis, but he'd never flown the city. And until this ill-fated mission, he'd never tried to use one of the control chairs without the augmentation of the Ancient's knowledge.

Sweat was beading on Jack's forehead. The chair was brightly lit again, still that eerie green, but much brighter than before. Panes of colored light spread from the chair to the room itself, fully lighting it up again.

Woolsey had sat down on the room-circling bench, but he looked determined and his spine was straight. Rodney was staring at his tablet, his arm around Jennifer. "Here we go," he said, and Daniel felt a distant, strong vibration beneath his feet. He moved to look over Rodney's shoulder. Rodney was somehow getting a feed from Earth satellites, because on the tablet, Daniel was seeing the city's position from space. And the city was moving.

Lights flickered. Daniel looked around. The lights were fully on in the room, and lights were now running down the corridor beyond.

Free of the poisonous Pacific, the city was coming back to life.

Daniel looked at Jack. He was sweating freely, frowning hard. His fingers were buried in the gel. The vibrations increased, like silent thunder.

Rodney muttered, "Altitude is one hundred twelve kilometres. We should be accelerating now. What..." He broke off, staring at Jack.

"Soon," John said, seeming to cheer Jack on. "Almost there..."

Daniel could see Jack's chest heaving. His eyelids fluttered.

"Shit," John said. Awkwardly, abruptly, he pushed himself around the chair and jammed himself in Jack's lap. He shoved one thigh between Jack's, and one between the side of the chair and Jack's hip, and thrust his fingers into the gel, over and between Jack's fingers. His head came to rest beside Jack's against the chair back, his spine arched, his face tense.

Daniel clenched his fists.

Radek was saying, "This is unprecedented. How can they both...."

Daniel watched Jack's face. First he was aware of the change in the light, slowly shifting from green to blue, and then the light in the room began growing even brighter. The vibrations under his feet increased for long seconds, then ceased. He held his breath.

Radek, Daniel registered, was now at Rodney's other side, looking at the tablet.

"They did it," Radek said to the room. "We're in the wormhole sp-"

And everything winked out.

An eyeblink later, Daniel came to. Moments had passed. Years had passed. Everyone was in the same spot, but Rodney's tablet was blank. They were all standing in the same places, and Jack and John were still in the chair, straining together.

The only thing different in real time was the appearance of a three-dimensional schematic in the air above the two men.

"Lantea," Rodney breathed. Daniel glanced at his tablet. It was still dark.

"Decumba," John muttered. "Oceanus...."

"Descend to the sea," Daniel translated.

"Come on," Rodney said. "Come on." Jennifer put a hand over her mouth.

The lights around them flickered, then steadied.

Daniel could see for himself when the blip on the schematic representing the city stopped moving, and feel for himself when a gentle rolling sensation replaced the vibrations of atmospheric re-entry. Even as he noticed it, it was dampened by the city's automatic systems.

Rodney waved his tablet around. "They did it," he said to Radek, and again to the room. "They did it. We're here. We're back in Pegasus."

"Glycis," Jack muttered.

And Daniel found that tears had sprung to his eyes.

"What did he say?" Radek asked.

"He said, 'sweet,' " Daniel answered.

He was a couple of steps behind Rodney in getting to the chair this time.

John and Jack were like drunken sailors, mobile, barely, but obviously about to pass out. They mumbled, talking out loud, but to no one, and Daniel was stricken to hear that they were both speaking nothing but Ancient again.

Jennifer came back with two gurneys and help from the infirmary, but as Daniel was helping Jack lie down, he gripped Daniel's arm, hard.

"Dormata," he said urgently.

And John echoed, "Dormata! Asodo!"

"Stop!" Daniel said, and Jennifer looked back at him, puzzled and upset. "Don't take them to the infirmary. They're asking for the stasis room. The stasis chamber, like you did for Carson before."

"Oh my god," Jennifer said. "They're that far gone? We only used it for Carson because we had no way of treating him."

Everyone pushing the gurneys had reversed course, following Jennifer's lead. The hallway lights were glowing a gentle blue-white now, just as they always had. It seemed the city, for its part, might be getting back to normal.

Jennifer said, "We'd better go get Carson, too. He was unconscious when I left him in the infirmary." One of the nurses took off running.

Woolsey was still hovering in the doorway of the chair room. He said, "Dr. Zelenka, with me. We'll head for the control room. We can evaluate the city's status best from there. Dr. Keller. Dr. Jackson. Do what you can for them." He bowed his head for a moment, then turned and jogged up the corridor. Radek was right behind.

Daniel, Jennifer, Rodney and the two nurses pushed the gurneys the other direction, down and around to the lab with the stasis chambers. After a brief debate, they decided not to risk the transport elevators.

"Dormata," Jack kept muttering, interspersed with Daniel's name. John appeared to be unconscious now.

"We'll get you there, Jack. It'll be all right," Daniel murmured, trying to believe his own words.

Jennifer said, "I wish I knew how to predict what will happen to them in stasis. Or how long they'll need to stay."

"Here's hoping, not forever," Rodney said grimly. "We need to contact the Odyssey again right away, get that Varland person or someone else who understands both the Asgard and the Ancient stasis methods. There's got to be..."

He trailed off, because another team had arrived from the infirmary with Carson, unconscious on a gurney. Someone had slipped a teddy bear under his arm in the infirmary. He looked unhealthily pale, and as still as death. It took the combined efforts of all of them to move three heavy and unresponsive men off the gurneys and prop them upright into the stasis chambers.

As the force field shimmered to life around Jack and the interior began chilling, Jack's eyes flew open, and, just like the first time, a galaxy away, he told Daniel goodbye.

After that, Daniel backed up and sat down heavily on a nearby bench. He glanced at the others, who were gathered around the other two occupied stasis chambers. Daniel took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. This room was all warm reds and golds, as different as could be from the stark white of the old Antarctic outpost. But the feeling of helpless bewilderment was all too familiar.

Rodney released Jennifer from a hug, and knelt by John's chamber to check on the readouts there. After checking Carson, Jennifer slowly came over to Jack's to do the same.

"Everything looks good," she said, coming to Daniel and putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm really, really hoping the city is getting back to normal now. Taking over the vital functions. Like this." She waved a hand toward the men now encased in icy suspension. Her eyes were red, too. Daniel remembered that she and Rodney had had a great deal of experience with monitoring people in these chambers. He grasped at the hope that they knew a lot more about what the chambers could do than he did. And in the coming days, he promised himself, he was going to learn everything he could about that. Everything. Because. Jack. He put his hand over hers and squeezed. There was nothing more to say.

^^^

Atlantis rested, bathed in her familiar, sweet, clean ocean. She had swum in many seas, soared past many stars, but this planet, this place, was home, as much as anywhere could be. This welcoming ocean was where she had spent the most time -- on it and beneath it, in all her millenia of traveling the galaxies. It felt good here. It felt right. The sun was warm, the air was cool, the sea was cold and blue and deep.

She rested, and revived, resetting programs, cleansing contaminated channels, rebooting confused systems. And she watched, and waited, overseeing the recovery of the intrepid pilots to whom she owed her survival. She tried not to play favorites. But in this generation, she really did love them best.

^^^

At full hyperdrive, with all the Asgard enhancements, it would take Odyssey ten days to get here. During these blessed days of radio silence, Woolsey edited and rehearsed his speeches for his oversight committee and the Pentagon, and often repeated to himself Jack's reminder about permission versus forgiveness.

He was relieved and grateful to see how well the city was doing now. Every day, Rodney and Radek and Parrish and the other scientists reported only good things. It was all news of recovery and replenishment. Within hours of splashing down in this familiar sea, Rodney had been able to coax the city into re-establishing the cloak. With the full restoration of city power, helped along immeasurably by the fact that they still kept all three of the ZPMs, Woolsey had been able to speak to all personnel over city comms, apologizing for the abrupt departure and reassuring them that anyone who wished to return to Earth could do so shortly, when, he presumed, the Odyssey joined them for an update. He also risked dialing Earth for a deliberately brief databurst, explaining the situation without apologizing. Further conversation could wait for Odyssey.

However, no one seemed especially eager to return to the Milky Way, except, perhaps, for a few Marines who had been expecting easy security duty Earthside and not an intergalactic trip, and a couple of Navy personnel who had been caught off guard, because they were in the city to join their significant others on leave, rather than taking leave somewhere on Earth. At least one of the Navy people had unexpectedly left children behind. Woolsey was as reassuring as he knew how to be that the separation would be brief.

Earth, of course, had plundered several of their puddle jumpers, but they still had two aboard. It would have to do, for now.

Four days after Atlantis had landed in the sea of her long-time home, Woolsey opened the gate and sent a coded message to New Athos. Eighteen hours after that, Teyla Emmagen and her family contacted Atlantis using the agreed-upon code and were ushered through the gate to an emotional reunion.

One day later, after offering the same code, Ronon Dex jogged through the gate to the same welcome.

Ms. Emmagen and Specialist Dex had been entirely willing to add their efforts to the battle against the Wraith, when the Wraith took the fight to Earth orbit. But afterward, the weeks sitting idle in the city, with nothing but bureaucratic wrangling to reward their commitment, had weighed heavily on them. Both had eventually decided to return to Pegasus by ship, where they knew their contributions would still be useful against the Wraith. Woolsey assumed it hadn't been an easy decision for either of them, and he believed that if Dex had been offered a position on a gate team with the SGC, he, at least, might have stayed. But under the circumstances, it seemed Fate had made a much-desired reunion possible for Sheppard's team and their city.

Not that Woolsey believed in Fate, of course.....

About his other orphan of the storm, Woolsey had no comparably firm convictions. He watched Dr. Jackson drift around the city, trying to distract himself with research and educational conversations, but really, he was only filling in time. Waiting. Hoping.

Woolsey, busy and committed, tried not think about it. It was out of his hands. So many, many things were.

^^^

Daniel was mostly in the archive room, asking the hologram of Morgan Le Fay questions about the stasis chambers. In the few days after their arrival, after, first, sleeping for ten hours and then checking on the stasis room yet again, he'd moved his center of operations here to study. He couldn't stand to wait in his quarters and use the laptop, even though the city's network was fully operational again, and all Rodney's code integrating the Earthside computers with the Atlantis servers and databases was truly seamless. Sitting in his quarters made him think too much about how much better it would have been if Jack had been there with him. And he didn't like working with his laptop in the stasis room, either. He couldn't stay away, but he couldn't work in there either. He tried to use that time to unplug, to rest, to simply be with Jack even if Jack couldn't see or hear him.

But studying here with the city's library hologram -- he felt he was making some real progress. And it was an intriguing change, learning things orally, and through the incredible multimedia displays the city was able to produce. Maybe there was a bit of nostalgia involved, as well. Memories of the team's successful search for the so-called Ark of Truth. Morgan's, or Ganos Lal's, figure was now truly just a hologram and not a living Ancient risking annihilation to communicate with the lowly Tau'ri, but there was something comforting about listening to her clipped British vowels, her schoolmistress air, condescending but cheerful. Based on what he'd learned from her, he was becoming extremely encouraged about the ability of the stasis chambers to not only sustain, but actually heal, their occupants.

So time was passing. But he was doing what he could. He had a routine. He would study here for a few hours, grab a bite to eat, check on Jack and John and Carson, sleep for a while, then go through the whole ritual again.

Sometimes, when he was sitting with Jack, Rodney or Jennifer or Lorne or some of the other original crew would be sitting with John and Carson. Sometimes Daniel surprised Woolsey sitting with Jack. Woolsey always stood up and left immediately when he caught sight of Daniel in the door of the stasis lab. For which Daniel was grateful.

This afternoon, Daniel, having exhausted everything he could find out about the stasis chambers, had switched to an equally arcane, for him, study of what could have gone wrong with Atlantis in the Pacific waters back on Earth.

He was listening to Morgan talk about the process Atlantis used for removing barnacles, algae, and other invasive flora and fauna from critical intake ducts, valves and surfaces when the city was floating. Daniel had an empty coffee cup at his elbow, and had switched to making notes on an old-fashioned legal pad, just for variety, when the page came.

"Dr. Jackson to the stasis room. Dr. Jackson to the stasis room, stat."

It was Jennifer's voice.

He leapt up and ran. He missed the fact that Morgan stopped speaking in mid-sentence, and that her fond, wistful gaze followed him out of the room.

^^^

Jennifer, or someone, had called quite a few people in addition to Daniel. He noted Rodney, and Evan, and Teyla, and Ronon, and Woolsey, and probably some others, before his attention was fully captured by the cycling lights around the edges of the icy surface of Jack's chamber. Jack's brown eyes continued to stare at an invisible horizon, just as they'd done for the past eight days. But the lights. The lights were new.

"Something's happening," Jennifer said tersely. Daniel stood still, hoping against hope.

Eight long days.

The lights cycled without change for about fifteen minutes. Daniel was treated to a muttered, three-way argument among Rodney, Radek and Jennifer, who, after all, had seen this before. Lived this before.

Then, behind the translucent surface of his stasis chamber, Sheppard raised a hand and planted his palm on the inside.

Rodney was instantly on his feet. "John! Can you hear me?"

"Wait, Rodney," Jennifer hissed. "Don't interfere."

"Dammit," Rodney muttered, but he went back to looking at his laptop, and looking at the lights on the control panel. Daniel knew the feeling. He wanted to will the process to success by sheer mental force. He glanced aside to find Major Lorne looking at him with such sympathy that it almost made him crack. He managed to nod in acknowledgement. Then he had to sit down and take off his glasses.

Five more minutes. Ten. The lights stopped moving.

The cover of the stasis chamber slid up and vanished, and Jack shakily inhaled. He reached out and gripped the sides of the chamber, and took one hesitant step forward.

Daniel was there, gripping his shoulder, giving Jack room to walk out, and then they were hugging, tightly, recklessly, not caring who could see. Just like a similar day, more than a decade ago, when Daniel had returned from death. Jack was mashing his face into Daniel's shoulder now, just like that day, and Daniel had to close his eyes against the dizzying relief.

Jack raised his head, then stepped back, still hanging on. He said, "Hey," and Daniel muttered, "Hey yourself," and then Jack was cupping his face with both hands and kissing him, and Daniel was -- impossible, incredible -- kissing him back. Daniel's arms were still tight around Jack's middle and they were kissing, in full view of whomever of the Atlantis crew could spare a moment from John's and Carson's, presumably, similar revival, and Daniel couldn't find in it him to care.

Jack was solid and warm against him, and his lips tasted soft and sour, and he smelled... he smelled like he'd been sweating into the same set of BDUs for a week, which, of course, he had.

The kiss ended, and Jack rested his face on Daniel's shoulder again.

Jack asked, "Can we get out of here now? Maybe a shower? Maybe some coffee?"

"I don't see why not," Daniel said, and they turned, arms around each other's waists, heading for the door, and Daniel should have predicted this, but it still blindsided him, the applause and the cheering.

Jennifer came close before they could quite escape, and she was beaming. She put a hand on Daniel's shoulder and said, "Could you please bring him in for an exam? Before too long?"

And Daniel, grinning, said, "I'll do my best." Still grinning, he took off his radio headset and handed it to her.

Jack said, "Thank you, doc," and patted her shoulder, and then, over Jennifer's protestations that she hadn't done a thing, really, and the confused, delighted hubbub of the room, they were left alone to walk up the long hall to their neglected quarters.

Jack accepted a drink of water, but then he said, "I really have got to have a shower."

And Daniel said, "Okay, but you know I'm coming in there with you."

And Jack quirked up a corner of his mouth, making Daniel's heart melt all over again, and said, "If you insist."

The shower enclosure in Jack's quarters was large. Daniel watched him strip out of his fragrant uniform and let it drop to the tiles. He didn't bother to take off his dog tags. Daniel found a new, still-in-the-box bar of soap, and divested himself of his own clothes.

When he stepped in under the spray, Jack folded him close once again. He didn't move or protest when Daniel, bearing up under Jack's weight, started washing him.

A few minutes in, Jack began to chuckle.

"Am I tickling you?" Daniel said, pausing.

"No, no, god, no. It feels great. Keep it up. I just... We get ourselves into the craziest shit, you know?"

"I know." Daniel kept washing, scrubbing Jack with a cloth, waiting for him to talk, soaking in the skin contact.

"How long was I out, once John and I got the city here?"

Daniel noted that Jack knew that John had helped him. "Going on eight days."

"Shit. I'm sorry. You must have been worried sick."

"Stop it. You had to do it. You knew that already."

"Yeah.... God, that feels good. Right there; right above my shoulder blade... I swear that's been itching for about three days straight...."

"Jack..." Daniel said, dropping his head to Jack's shoulder, still scrubbing.

"I know. Baby, I know..."

And then the scrubbing stopped, and the water pounded down on them as they held each other close, and if the shower washed away a few tears, well, nobody had to confess to that, did they.

Jack pushed Daniel away long enough to wash his own hair, and when he scrubbed a hand over his jaw, he said, "Crap," and rinsed off, leaving Daniel to wash while he stepped out to shave in front of the mirror, as was his preference. Daniel called for a razor and shaved by touch in the shower, as was his.

The familiarity was comforting. Daniel, if he closed his eyes, could pretend they were in a hotel. A very fancy, five-star hotel, where the steam never built up in the bathroom because the vent fans were so good. And where the tile wasn't alabaster, wasn't terrazzo, or slate, but was some incredible blue-green, glass-like substance that probably cost a fortune.

Yeah. The illusion only lasted when you didn't think about the details too much.

Daniel cut off the shower and emerged to see Jack studying himself in the big mirror. Daniel dried off, glancing at Jack while trying not to seem obvious about it, seeking to get a handle on his mood. He seemed fine, he seemed okay, but Daniel had been through too much in the last few days to immediately believe that everything was all right.

"Oper vos sentio?" he said. He was testing.

"What?" Jack said absently, running a hand over his chin.

"How do you feel?" Daniel repeated.

"Good," Jack said, turning, regarding Daniel. Daniel took a deep breath, gave his stomach one last scrub with the towel, and hung it up over the shower door.

"Are you hungry?" Daniel said in English, abandoning his fearful attempt at trying to trick Jack into speaking Ancient.

"Maybe," Jack said, and he stepped in and took hold of Daniel's hips, closing his eyes and bringing their groins together. Daniel snatched in a breath and wrapped his arms around Jack's shoulders. He was trying to be reasonable, to do what Jack needed, to meet Jack's basic needs, but maybe....

"Could we... Do you think...." Jack said. Still holding on to Daniel's hips, he was sidling toward the door to the bedroom.

"God, yes, but, Jennifer... She wanted...."

"In a minute," Jack said, eyes closed, sounded aggrieved and impatient.

And how, really, could Daniel argue with that.

^^^

It was too quick, really, too quick and too good. All hands, and kissing, and damp skin, and they knew each other so well, knew exactly how to touch, how to make it sweet, so sweet. Even if it was too quick. This private reunion felt so urgent, and so necessary.

All too soon they were panting their way to recovery, holding each other close, heedless of the puddle they'd made on the sheets. The bed was a little too small, but that was the least of their worries.

"So," Jack said, when their breathing had slowed and Daniel had pulled some covers over them and Jack had dimmed the room lights. "Atlantis."

Daniel observed, his head on Jack's shoulder, "This is the first time we've been in the city together."

"And we had to jump to another galaxy to do it." Jack was absently stroking Daniel's arm with his thumb.

"It was incredibly reckless, what you did. But you saved the city."

"You could have done it, you and Sheppard and Beckett and that person with the Asgard doo-hickey."

Daniel got up on one elbow. "Maybe. But you came yourself. There's a story there, I know. You didn't have time to tell me."

Jack sighed. "We have to think about Washington already?"

Daniel grinned at him. "No rest for the wicked."

Jack's hands were restless the whole time he talked, touching Daniel's skin as if to relearn it. Daniel listened to him with his whole body.

"It was bad luck that the ocean was getting so toxic for the city, but it gave me a good opportunity to do something, to cut through all the crap that was coming down. I'll tell Richard this too, but you need to not spread it around, all right? I came myself because the wrong faction started winning. The one that wanted to dismantle the city and leave it all on Earth, permanently. Some of the brass wanted to pull the chair out of here and re-install it in the US somewhere, somewhere better fortified than Area 51. And they wanted to cut up the different labs, piecemeal them out to a bunch of researchers all over the world. Cut the city up to pacify the international reps."

"You're kidding."

"I wish I was. I started getting very afraid the other side was going to win. They were gaining momentum and support from some surprising parties. So I came to Baja because I saw a chance to take the city out, because knew I couldn't just sweettalk Richard into doing something so crazy, and because I didn't want Sheppard to have to mutiny to do it. Like he did last time. I found out about the malfunctioning city, and, well, you saw the rest. In a way, it was good timing."

"Man of action," Daniel said thoughtfully, lying back down.

"Basically I'm really really glad the city knew how to put us all back together in those chambers. Not that I was a bit happy to wake up in one of them again. I've enjoyed about as much of that as I can stand."

"Me, too," Daniel said, pulling him close again. "Me, too."

^^^

After a few more minutes of wallowing in Jack's presence, Daniel prevailed on him to get checked out in the infirmary, promising him coffee and a proper meal as a bribe.

Jennifer gave Daniel back his headset with a knowing look. Jack refused to wear one.

"That's why generals have minions," he said.

Daniel ineffectually protested his minion status, to Jennifer's deep amusement.

Woolsey sent another databurst to Earth, conveying the good news that all three men were back to normal. He and Jack closeted themselves in Woolsey's office to discuss the, no doubt, irate package of messages from various people in Washington, and Daniel figured Jack was briefing Woolsey on the situation that had prompted him to come to the city himself in the first place, back on Earth.

That evening, after dinner, and after a lively meeting in which Teyla and Ronon brought the senior staff up to date on the Wraith threat and other recent developments in nearby systems, Jack and Daniel wandered out onto one of the balconies.

They could hear the ocean caressing the pier below. There was a cool, salty breeze, and a half moon.

"A guy could get used to this," Daniel said, nudging Jack's elbow with his own, smiling slyly.

"Fishing, stargazing, ocean sailing. Oh, and life-sucking aliens who want to kill us, and zombie humans who also want to kill us, and giant blue carnivorous bugs, and neo-Stalinists with nukes, and-- who am I leaving out?"

"Revenge-obsessed former research subjects, maybe? Sharks? Wraith Worshippers? Space pirates?"

"Right. Them." Jack half turned to study Daniel's face in the bright moonlight. "Do you want to stay? Really?"

"Will I even be given a choice?"

Jack laughed at that and put his elbows on the railing.

Daniel went on, ruefully, "No, seriously. What does it matter if I want to stay or not? Won't it be out of my hands? Landry won't let me come. For very different reasons than you, of course, but. Still."

Jack shook his head. "I don't know what's going happen, Daniel. We got the goddamn city back where she belongs, and if Woolsey and Sheppard can't manage to keep her here this time, they don't deserve to be in charge of her. They are negotiating from a position of strength, now that they are out here. Back home. Very far away from Earth politics. I do honestly think that chances are good that they can stay. Carter will be on their side, too, and I think she got to Davidson years ago. She had his ear for a while when they were working on the Asgard stuff on Davidson's ship. And you know that all the other 303 commanders gotta like the idea of an early warning system, now that at least some of the Wraith probably know our location."

"Ah," Daniel said.

"There'll be a hell of a mess to clean up back home, though. Job's not over yet."

"So you're going back on the Odyssey?"

"Probably. You?"

"Well, it was a nice fantasy for a while -- thinking about staying here ... with you. And I never say 'no' to chance to look at the Asgard database. So much to learn there. A lifetime wouldn't be enough."

"You do get vacations, you know. And I do too. And..."

"What?" Daniel said, putting his arm around Jack.

Jack leaned his head against Daniel's head, looking out at the shining silvery water, and the tranquil sky, barely obscured by the city's cloak. "There's always retirement."